Preseason Week 4 Ramblings

Carolina's Draft Bungles

September 3. 2012 The first round of the draft gets most of the fanfare when it comes to the NFL draft. However, when it comes to building a consistent winner you have to draft successfully beyond that. A perfect example lies with the Carolina Panthers. Carolina looks like they are ready to become a consistent contender with the addition of Cam Newton, but if there is one thing that can hold them back it is their shady draft history beyond the first round. Longtime general manager Marty Hurney (pictured middle) has actually had a stellar record in the first round. Since 2002 he has drafted the following players in the first round: Julius Peppers, Jordan Gross, Chris Gamble, Thomas Davis, DeAngelo Williams, Jon Beason, Jonathan Stewart, Jeff Otah, Cam Newton, and Luke Keuchly. That is actually a stellar group of players with the only bust among them being Jeff Otah (obviously too early to judge on Keuchly). The only one who is not a top 20 player at his position is Thomas Davis and that is mostly due to his multiple ACL injuries. One has to give credit to Hurney when it comes to his history of drafting very well in the first round, but in the second round and beyond the Panthers have not found much success. The most recent example of this is defensive tackle Terrell McClain. He was the first pick in the third round by the team last year and had a lackluster rookie campaign. However, he was released over the weekend when the team decided to sign veteran Dwan Edwards at the same position. It is pretty embarrassing when a team gives up on a third rounder after only one season of action. McClain is more along the lines of the rule and not the exception when it comes to Carolina’s picks. The only players that are solid starting contributors to the team drafted beyond round one since 2002, excluding this years rookies, are Geoff Hangartner, James Anderson, Ryan Kalil, Charles Johnson, Charles Godfrey, Brandon Lafell, Captain Munnerlyn, and Greg Hardy (with Kalil and Johnson probably the only ones with probowl potential). Other players like Travelle Wharton, Dan Connor, and Richard Marshall were solid, but have moved on. While guys like Evan Mathis and Will Montgomery are playing well with other teams and never hit their stride in Carolina. That is a decent list but when paired against just their second and third round picks that have busted since 2002 the list becomes very unimpressive. These busts include: Bruce Nelson, Mike Seidman, Keary Colbert, Eric Shelton, Atiyyah Ellison, Rashad Butler, Dwayne Jarrett, Everette Brown, Sherod Martin, Cory Irvin, Jimmy Clausen, Armanti Edwards, and now Terrell McClain. It could be argued that guys like Sherod Martin and Armanti Edwards are young enough to rebound, but Martin just lost his job and Armanti has shown nothing so far. Either way, that is a pretty long and embarrassing list of busts, with some of them contributing absolutely nothing to the team before being shown the door. It is scary that I did not even include the mid to later round guys who never panned out. The second round through seventh round is really where teams build winners. Yes, you have to have good top picks in order to be successful, but the second tier guys are often the difference between being a good team and being a great team. I question whether Carolina has enough of those types of players on its roster. If they are not a playoff team this season it will probably because of that deficiency. Marty Hurney and the Panthers really need to hope this years draft turns out very strong. Even so, it may take next years draft featuring more successful second round and later draft picks and some of Hurney’s past picks to turn around quickly before this team can compete. Image courtesy of: http://www.panthers.com/assets/images/imported/CAR/photos/2012/04-April/120419_predraft_inside.jpg

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